Creating with Courage

6/4/2019

Emily Magnus

Henri Matisse once said, “Creativity takes courage.” If that is the case, there is plenty of courage spilling out of the classrooms and into the hallways of Carpenter Arts Center. As the spring semester drew to a close in May, students’ art projects came together and were on display throughout the art building and beyond; ceramics, graphic design projects, photographs, and paintings all revealed the creativity and hard work—and courage—of our artists. Below are just some of their final pieces.

In photography, students experimented with landscapes, the layering of images, and editorial composition both at the beginning and advanced levels. The Advanced photography class also completed a large-scale portrait that has been a Holderness tradition since 1989. The students begin by creating a scene in which all the students participate. In the past they have created scenes from a bowling league, a crime suspect lineup, and a motorcycle gang. This year, the students took over a room in the Admission Office and set up a saloon—complete with antique guns, a card game, and a smoke machine. The large-format negatives (4” X 5”) from the photoshoot are then developed and printed in a special darkroom in the basement of Rathbun Dorm, resulting in a 40” X 50” picture.

In Studio Practices, students learned about perspective drawing and large-scale portraits. For the large-scale portraits, students picked digital photos of themselves and posterized them using Photoshop. Choosing a monochromatic color palette, students then used a grid to translate the photographs into paint.

Ceramics students were prolific this spring, creating both functional dishes as well as artistic sculptures out of clay. They learned the delicate art of forming vessels on a potter’s wheel and the science of glazing.

In 2D Graphic Design, students discovered the power of Adobe Illustrator. Playfully manipulating many recognizable logos, students created their own knockoff brands. Students also created logos for themselves using their initials in unique and appealing black and white squares.

List of 3 news stories.

Albert Bierstadt, the German-American painter renowned for his landscapes of the American West, came to the White Mountains to capture its simple yet overwhelming beauty. What came to life through nearly a decade’s worth of work was The Emerald Pool, a massive oil-on-canvas monument to the natural majesty of a hidden swimming hole along the Peabody River in the Pinkham Notch. Recounting The Emerald Pool, Bierstadt said, “I never had so difficult a picture to paint, as this White Mountain subject the Emerald Pool; my artist friends think it my best picture and so do I.”

At Holderness we deliberately build community through the people we bring in and programs we support. Today I want to share one story about people who showed us what it means to be a mission-centered community and talk about one unique program that is hitting a milestone.

Kicking off its 141st year, Holderness School welcomed new students to campus on September 5th. Under blue skies and surrounded by the cheers of joyful Senior Leaders, 114 new students eagerly joined the Holderness School community. The day was filled with smiles as new students and families unpacked their cars and turned dorm rooms into a home away from home.